Youth activists imprisoned in Ganja

Дата: 1 Август 2017

Mushvig Valiyev, Iskandar Osmanli, and Elchin Maharramli

Mushvig Valiyev, Iskandar Osmanli, and Elchin Maharramli

30 July at the Kapaz District Court in Ganja three young political activists received sentences for resisting a police officer. Mushvig Valiyev, chairman of the Nationalist Youth Organization (NYO), and Iskandar Osmanli, NYO board member, were both sentenced to 25 days of administrative detention. Elchin Maharramli, head of NYO’s Mingachevir chapter, received 30 days.

Sources close to the young men told Meydan TV that the trial of a fourth activist, Majid Turksoy, chairman of the Ganja chapter of NYO, is still ongoing, but the authorities have not provided any information about it. ‘The other young activists were not provided with a lawyer. Their trial was carried out very quickly and it was closed to the public,’ they said.

30 July the activists were detained by a group of people in civilian clothes and taken to Ganja City Police Department.

According to their Facebook page, the Nationalist Youth Organization was founded 26 August, 2012. The group defines itself as ‘an assembly of nationalist youths who love their nation and want to lead it forward.’ Their stated mission is ‘to create a proper national consciousness in people throughout Azerbaijan and Turan.’